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Music and Society

Objectives

At the end of the seminar, students should be able to demonstrate:

a) knowledge and proficiency in relating concepts, research instruments, scientific literature and theories presented;

b) ability to identify and work with research problems in the field in question;

c) critical autonomy and the ability to use specific conceptual frameworks;

d) development of original research and instruments of scientific communication.

General characterization

Code

722021022

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

Manuel Pinto Deniz Silva

Hours

Weekly - 3

Total - 280

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

  • DeNora, T. (1995). Beethoven and the construction of genius: musical politics in Vienna, 1792-1803. U. California P.
  • Elias, N. (2000). Mozart, Sociologia de um génio. Edições Asa.
  • Gribenski, J., & Taïeb, P. (Eds.) (2014). Mozart et la France: De l’enfant prodige au génie (1764-1830). Symétrie.
  • Heinich, N., & Jefferson, A. (2015). The Genius of Sociology: Norbert Elias’s Mozart and the Sociology of a Genius. L'Esprit Créateur,55(2), 73-88.
  • Hennion. A., & Fauquet, J.-M. (2001). Authority as performance: The love of Bach in nineteenth-century France. Poetics, 29, 75-88.
  • Landon, H. C. R. (1991). The Mozart compendium: a guide to Mozart's life and music. Thames and Hudson.
  • Mozart, W. A. (1986-99). Correspondance: réunie et annotée par Whielm A. Bauer, O. E. Deutsch et J. H. Eibl (édition française ettraduction par Geneviève Geffray). Flammarion.
  • Rebulla, P. (2011). In Mozart’s words: Working with a correspondence database. Fontes Art, 58(1), 8-15.

Teaching method

Classes will be organized as seminars, with moments of exposition and debate. Different methodologies will be explored, in particularclose readings, literature reviews on the main domains under analysis, discussion and interpretation of scores, phonograms and audiovisual works. Issues related to the construction of individual research projects will be discussed, as will be the oral presentations planned.

Evaluation method

Continuous assessment - A review of one of the texts selected for discussion in the seminar, to be presented orally and in a written version(30%), A written essay on a particular aspect of the seminar’s theme, to be discussed with the teacher(50%), Presence in class and active participation in the discussions throughout the semester(20%)

Subject matter

Mozart and the construction of musical genius.
The seminar will be based on a close reading of Elias’ “Mozart, portrait of a genius”, exploring different constructions of the figure of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, both in musicology and in works of fiction (theatrical and cinematographic). These constructions will beexamined in the light of different analyses of his work, his activity as a performer and his biography. Different resources will be explored,in particular the composer's personal correspondence, as well as the most recent studies on the reception of Mozart's music in his timeand in the years that followed his death, as well as on the progressive emergence of the "Mozart’s myth", both as “child prodigy” and “musical genius”. This exploration will also be articulated with the most recent developments in the sociology of art and music on the construction of the notion of “genius”.